Day 5. Cheating with taxi and being baked on the streets

13.7.2018

Woke up, went to toilet, packed up backbag. Had still bit time so went to rest a bit. 10 minutes before morning ceremony. Headed down and saw a nice sunrise coming up to bring in more heat. Too bad had left camera to room rather than take to morning ceremony.

I had this cockroach as a house mate...Shy critter I saw already last night. Taking photo was rather difficult. As it seemed to avoid human contact figured I'm safe enough so I settled in closing up all bags to ensure I don't get hitchhiker next day.

Was sitting in the main hall when the italian pilgrim arrived. Bit later priest appeared. I had yet to see him here though from what I have read he also does stamp inscription at times. Now every temple has it's own style of ceremony(and some do evening ceremony rather than morning for quests) and the peculiarity of this one was definitely the singing style of the chanting. Very different to the usual more formal chanting. Also very hard for me to understand. Got some words here and there but didn't recognize any suttras. Not that I even know many to begin with! After it was over priest took time to talk with us and even short english chat in english with the italian pilgrim. We also got towels as a souvenir. I have heard this priest in particular has been driving for making it more easy for foreign pilgrims.

From there I went for my breakfast. Was overall good except for the rice porridge. Not fan of the japanese version with rice and water rather than milk. During this I talked with the lady and asked about the kids laughter and was told there lives no less than four kids in this temple. 3 for the head priest and 1 for her(guess she works here as well). Lively temple. Wonder what it's like for kids to live in temple? And at mountain temple at that. Meeting other kids of same age can be bit hard and hard to go visit friends!

Head priest also came around later and we exchanged few words. I verified that I hadn't missed the heart suttra which i know well enough I think I would have recognized singing style or not.

After this I packed up my gear and prepared to leave. Wishing good byes with the the friendly staff I left the Sen-yuuji. Definitely worthy of the praise I had heard of the temple.

Path to 59 involved first going down the stairways and then to that path I had accidentally went yesterday. More stairs through made from natural ground rather than stone. Overall nice except for my left knee that wasn't being particulary happy. I have always been bad at going down the mountains and these stairways are particulary bad for me. Another reason I'm considering taking bus down from Yokomineji apart from the prospect of climbing down 700 in this heat after going up. I noticed going down lots of lizards of some kind. For a while I just heard some noice wondering what it was but eventually noticed few of the lizards recognizing the sound they made while moving. Had heard them before as well few times but this was first time seeing one.

Last look at the Sen-nyuji's Niomon gate's statues.

Eventually came out of the mountain into paved road and from there started theme of this day. Paved roads, paved roads and more paved roads. Walking past roads showing sign of Japan waking itself up I greeted people I met and got into several conversations with the older ones. They are the ones more likely to have time for conversations I suppose. Young ones are rushing for work. Particularly the old guy who was going upward the hill I was descending with his bike was particularly talkative. Unsurprisingly the heat and reminders to take care were common topics today. Another is my country which isn't all that surprising. Today people were interested to hear what I had learned from news yesterday. Finland had got it's first 30 degree in temperatures in 3 years. That tells them right away usual weather I'm used to. And to both me and their surprise the fact it was in the very north of Finland is weird. South finland was much cooler(though warming up soon I read later).

With barely a cloud in sky it was blazing hot. I tried to ensure I would at least walk through any shadow out there no matter how small!

Okay okay I get it! Right from here it seems... :D Sometimes markers are "bit" abundant.

Path to the 59 was fairly simple just involving one sharp turn and walking straight. I had one stop at konbini for extra meal to supplement the temple breakfast.

Arriving to the 59 Kokubunji(official state temple. Used to be one in every prefecture after Emperor Shomu ordered them built, here by Gyogi who also carved the honzon, but now only Shikoku has them left apart from place names). I was confused for a moment about where temple was. I had actually walked past it missing it straight on my left. I was so gratified to have shade and drink there. It had become very hot already despite being up this early. Another japanese pilgrim appeared but based on no backbag and no hat of any kind I very much doubt he was a walker so more likely car pilgrim. We greeted each other as we did our routines. Curiously he did the daishi hall first, then main hall. Usual order seems to be reverse.

Provincial office of Iyo(old name for Ehime) used to be here. As it is this temple is likely biggest claim for fame for this tiny town. Present location is about 100m west of original place(incidentally it's the Honzon that defines what counts as temple. Buildings and locations can change but honzon stays). As is often the case used to be in bigger scale but wars and so on have resulted in gradual scaling down to current version. Current main hall was built in 1789.

Kobo Daishi is said to have stayed here and to have done painting of five great deities for this temple. Later his disclipine prince Shinnyo stayed here for 2 years and copied the Lotus suttra. This is the only temple in the pilgrimage that belongs to Shingon Ritsu sect.

The main hall holding statue of Yakushi Nyorai.

And the Daishi hall holding statue of Kobo Daishi.

Another pair of old pilgrims(presumably also by car. Walking pilgrims invariably have backbag for their gear) appeared as I had done my routines. Tried to call the Yokomenji temple to ask about condition of the route as I had promised to do for the Italian pilgrim but got no reply. And sure enough she appeared then. We talked for a while as I was selecting phone number for taxi. Plan called for a taxi ride from here to bekkaku 10 to avoid almost 40km day. I got myself taxi booked up and told it would be there in 10 minutes. Nice. Bid good byes to the Italian pilgrim unsure if we would meet again. I leap ahead of her but tomorrow ain't moving. Who knows?

Statue of Daishi. It is said if you shake hands one wish is granted. Also notes wishing this and that is no good as even Kobo Daishi is busy :D

Had to hurry a bit to got to the front gate of temple just in time as the taxi arrived. Threw in my gear and showed where I was going. Not sure how he managed to get there without hesitatioon. Car navigator would be my guess but what? Japan has voice controlled car navs now? I want too!

Talking this and that -we got to the temple in quick order setting me down at 5300 yen well I still had some stairways to go up as car can't go all the way.

But time to earn that stamp. Lots of stairs later I arrived to the temple amidst my first bus pilgrim group for this year doing their final prayers. Asking for help what is the main hall and whats the daishi hall and what was the honzon(I had suttra book that had all the MAIN temples but that didn't cover the 20 bekkaku temples) I set up for the familiar routine. Surprisingly huge temple area. One could think being one of the "lesser" 20 temples it would be smaller but i have seen less grandiose temples on the main 88.

The temple is called Kōryūji(Entertain noble temple?) and Honzon was familiar thousand armed Kannon.

Would still be a while to get to the temple!

That's not the temple. That's the path to stamp office. Actual temple is still further UP!

Getting closer!

And finally the end is near!

Temple origins are bit unclear except it's said to have founded by Kūhachi Jōnin in 624, whoever he is. This place is famous for going to see autumn colours which I had no trouble believing.

Front of the HUGE honzon.

Kobo Daishi is said to have come here under order by Kanmu Emperor to pray. Patronated by many powerful people like founder of first Shogun of Kamakura Shogunate Minamoto no Yoritomo.

And that's the Daishi hall.

Funny Tengu face.

Not sure what this under Daishi hall is.

Shows how new idea this Bekkaku tour is. It's celebrating it's 50th year.

After spending quite a time at the area and emptying vending machine of several bottles(how often you see somebody buy 4 at once :D taxi came so fast I didn't have time to buy any and the stairs made me thirsty enough to down one right away) and headed toward the stamp office

The guy here could do part of ascetic monk in a movie that shows him after years of solitary meditation in a cave. Would be perfect fit! And another dog here. Dogs seems popular on the temples.

Coming out of the stamp office I noticed I'm kinda slow paced today(well mountain climb down and up are never fast) so figured with taxi saving me lots of effort now would be a good time to make up in time....

...and I ran into another very talkative local! He was impressed looking when he heard that I'm doing the whole 108 thing and noted he had yet to do it even once but as I commented it would be silly to think every japanese here has done the pilgrimage. Much like not every japanese sits hour or two in zafuton meditating ;-) In some ways I might actually know MORE about buddhism than your average japanese. Not meant as a bragging but for average people buddhism doesn't involve them in real life except for basic rituals they do more for a habit and custom. But how much they know of Buddha's teachings? Have they studied meaning of heart suttra rather than chant in special occasions because it's part of the rituals? Similarly many official christians don't really go that deep for that. Certainly I have managed to surprise couple pilgrims by knowing more about the topic than they do.

Anyway we spent quite a bit of talking so when i finally left him I had even more catching up to do. Alas it was getting bloody hot and the road toward the next temple was past this huge long straight road with virtually no shade of any kind. The sun was up blazing turning the paved road into a boiling kettle. There could be cooked Timo for dinner today for somebody.

This road was what taxi took me past.

Take care to take RIGHT path from here.

Sight of town I would be heading for.

Stopping to buy drinks on every vending machine I could find I still ran out of drink bottles. But that is why I have water on my hydration system. On city I use mostly pet bottles as those I can replenish often leaving hydration system mostly for backup for situations like this. Also provides some change of pace with just plain water. Cold tea is good but too much of that gets to you. Well cold tea turns not so cold soonish though in this heat...

Shrine on my way.

I had been eyeballing konbini on map but no sign of that so maybe closed but got to bekkaku temple 11 Ikiki Jizou(Living tree Jizo) or Ikikizan Shōzenji(Living Tree Mountain Temple of True Goodness) without too much of a hitch. Somehow there seems to be TWO temples here(though not checking notes missed this while there). Ikikijizo seems to be external to the main temple and has Jizo statue while main one has Yakushi Nyorai as Honzon. Apart from this the peculiarity of this temple has to be the huge root of tree that was toppled in typhoon early 1900-century. Must have been impressive when it was up.

Seriously wonder where the Ikikizan Shozenji is? Didn't see anything that looked like another temple compound.

Anyway temple is said to have been founded by Kobo Daishi(seems to have more direct hand in founding than main 88 where Gyogi is said to have been founder often!).

According to temple legend Kobo Daishi was traveling here when he took a nap here. Then on large camphor tree a boy appeared(maybe image of him in a tree rather than real boy). Kukai felt mysterious feeling from the boy so carved a statue of Jizo Bozatsu on that tree.

However some sort of devil faked chicken call so Kobo Daishi thinking morning had came left leaving one ear unfinished.

After tree fell down the carving was taken from the tree and moved to the main hall as Honzon.

Main hall visible. Daishi hall is on the right side in rather small non-descript building.

Daishi hall.

And the fallen tree. That's a big one.

It was here I noticed my wallet had got totally wet by sweat and even bills were moist. YIKES! I put them into drier spot and need to think up something from now on. Trouser pocket not a good place it seems.

From here it was just get to the onsen i would be lodging. Again through paved roads past rice fields etc and then into factory area.

Hello mountain range. You'll be next challenge.

It was here I met this old guy whose work involved directing this huge car with new trucks top of it to turn around. After car had left we talked and for some reason he was very curious about budget and time of trip to here. He planning travel somewhere? Anyway i gave him rough budget which he found interesting before we bid bye byes.

From here I turned right and came into this long bridge with huge mountain range behind that would contain the Yokomineji and somewhere around there also the Ishizuchi mountain that is tallest mountain in west japan and one I would like to climb one day.

Got huge dejavy from last year. Crossing long bridge, approaching town with mountain range i'll be heading next. Just like Shosanji from last year!

Nice building roofs.

On the way passed Ishizuchi elementary school that had this weird song going on. Not sure how often that is played. Looped over couple times. Hopefully not all day. I would go nuts! Saw from distance couple kids who looked to be cleaning ground out of all things!

Wonder who that statue at the school describes.

Found a konbini I had been aiming next for late lunch and got it and lots of drinks and looooots of talking especially with one old lady who noted she has done the pilgrimage by car twice. She had strong dialect which made understanding bit hard. In the end she basically forced me to accept blister band aid as osettai so I gave her osamefuda in return to remind her of this crazy foreigner who was walking the pilgrimage in the summer heat.

From there drop of to post office to send the books i had bought at temple 57 and then to onsen. I got my stuff to room, went to bath that i enjoyed a lot and just relaxed until dinner that had all sort of weird stuff i was unsure how to eat. Still good but just...weird.